Nathan Redmond's late winner saw Birmingham City beat Portsmouth 1-0 at St Andrew's on Tuesday as they moved to within two points of automatic promotion to the Premier League.
Only the top two sides in the second tier Championship are guaranteed automatic promotion to the lucrative Premier League and teenage substitute Redmond's 86th minute goal left Birmingham two points behind second-placed Southampton and only four adrift of leaders West Ham.
The 17-year-old broke the deadlock with a well-taken volley to deny visitors Pompey, whose very survival is threatened by a winding up order from British tax authorities, what would have been a battling point.
In the first half, Pompey could have gone ahead with Joel Ward forcing an excellent save from Birmingham keeper Boaz Myhill.
But it was not until four minutes from full-tme time that the stalemate was ended when Birmingham, who'd hit the post, scored the decisive goal.
Steven Caldwell's diagonal cross was flicked on by Curtis Davies and Redmond volleyed home to extend Birmingham's unbeaten home record this season and make it 12 matches unbeaten in all competitions.
Source: AFP
